Sponsored Links

Sponsored Links

With a suggested retail price just under $50,000 for the base 2016 Ford Shelby GT350, and little more for the even-more-ferocious GT350R, the high-performance, 526 horsepower Mustang variant is a relative bargain.

Or rather, it should be. But according to Fox Sports, the super-pony’s overwhelming scarcity has made it a prime candidate for price-gouging, with one yet-unbuilt example of the GT350R listed for sale for a whopping $175,000 on Hemmings.

Still more examples of absurd mark-ups are out there. Fox managed to find a base Shelby GT350 with the optional Technology Package for sale in Rochester, New York for $149,500 (MSRP roughly $57,000). And earlier in the month, a Ford Shelby GT350 Mustang with the optional Track Pack sold at a Mecum event in Florida for $115,000 – a comparatively fair amount, it would seem, at only just over double the $56,000 sticker price.

Unfortunately, this sort of price-gouging is by no means uncommon in circumstances such as this: when unbridled desirability couples with overwhelming scarcity to create a perfect storm of customer desperation. Just 100 examples of the Shelby GT350, plus 37 of the higher-performance GT350R, were produced last year, meaning that eager customers face a long wait to get behind the wheel.

That, or an absurdly inflated price tag. Of course, Ford would prefer that its Shelby GT350 Mustang models were sold at or around the suggested retail price, but there’s very little that can be done.

Sponsored Links

— Aaron Brzozowski

Aaron Brzozowski is a writer and motoring enthusiast from Detroit with an affinity for '80s German steel. He is not active on the Twitter these days, but you may send him a courier pigeon.